ScanBalt Campus - Modernizing Europe's universities

13.06.2006 - (idw) ScanBalt

At the conference "ScanBalt Campus in the Knowledge Based Bio-Economy"
12-13 June in Berlin an important step was taken to facilitate Universities in the Nordic-Baltic region, ScanBalt BioRegion, to modernize.

Bo Samuelsson, Chairman of the ScanBalt Campus Board, says "An important goal of ScanBalt Campus is to create an arena co-owned by the institutions but less encumbered by current rigidities and barriers. This will enable the institutions more quickly to match demand and supply and adapt swiftly to changes".

ScanBalt Academy
To oversee the activities within ScanBalt Campus, the ScanBalt Academy has been established. The Academy is composed of a group of distinguished scientist from Industry and Academia. The President of the ScanBalt Academy, Kaare Norum says "We are delighted that prominent scientists have accepted to build up the Academy. The Academy shall ensure quality, act as an advisory body and undertake specific tasks like electing award winners, giving lectures and being ambassadors".

Industry
Børge Diderichsen, vice president at Novo Nordisk, Denmark, adds "For industry it is crucial that access to quality competencies match the needs for Europe to be globally competitive within the biotech and life science sector. ScanBalt Campus is an important step in the right direction".

ScanBalt Campus web
At the conference the ScanBalt Campus web site, was launched providing a one-stop-entry to the 8 Knowledge Networks which has currently been established.

ScanBalt Campus is a part of ScanBalt BioRegion. ScanBalt BioRegion is a meta-region in life sciences that encompasses Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, northern part of Germany and north-western part of Russia. ScanBalt BioRegion includes regional networks of universities, industries, hospitals, public institutions, public authorities and other important actors within life sciences.

ScanBalt in 2005 initiated ScanBalt Campus - currently a pilot project co-financed by Interreg lllB. An important objective of ScanBalt Campus is to initiate cross-border Knowledge Networks within various disciplines of life sciences according to needs. The Knowledge Networks creates critical mass in education, research and tech transfer, promote public-private collaboration and use of shared curricula, increase global visibility and attract human and financial resources.